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Oxfam’s guidelines for assessing whether to prop up financial systems such as
loans and banks that work, but perhaps not very well, or to intervene directly
in people’s lives by providing help with credit groups and other financial
services are outlined in Microfinance and Poverty Reduction (Oxfam, ISBN 0 85598
369 8) by economist Susan Johnson and Ben Rogaly, a lecturer in development
studies. The answer seems to be horses for courses: at the level of
microeconomics, issues have to be decided on a case by case basis.